Lucia, lecherous, loved her husband so That, to the end he'd always of her think, She gave him such a philtre, for love-drink, That he was dead or ever it was morrow; Arid husbands thus, by same means, came to sorrow. "Then did he tell how one Latumius Complained unto his comrade Arrius That in his garden grew a baleful tree Whereon, he said, his wives, and they were three, Had hanged themselves for wretchedness and woe. *O brother/ Arrius said, 'and did they so? Give me a graft of that same blessed tree And in my garden planted it shall be!' "Of wives of later date he also read, How some had slain their husbands in their bed j And let their lovers shag them all the night While corpses lay upon the floor upright. And some had driven nails into the brain While husbands slept and in such wise were slain. And some had given them poison in their drink. He told more evil than the mind can think. And therewithal he knew of more proverbs Than in this world there grows of grass or herbs. 'Better/ he said, 'your habitation be With lion wild or dragon foul/ said he, Than with a woman who will nag and chide/ 'Better/ he said, 'on the housetop abide Than with a brawling wife down in the house; Such are so wicked and contrarious They hate the thing their husband loves, for aye.* He said, 'a woman throws her shame away When she throws off her smock/ and further, Cop: 'A woman fair, save she be chaste also, Is like a ring oŁ gold in a sow's nose/ Who would imagine or who would suppose What grief and pain were in this heart of mine? "And when I saw be'd never cease, in fine* His reading in this owrsed book at night, Three leaves of it I snatched and tore outright 33*